eVGA 680i cooling and overclocking

I hate asking these kinds of questions on forums, but my research isn't getting me very far.

I just built a new rig, here's the relevant parts list with newegg links where they're helpful:

eVGA nForce 680i
E6600 CPU (week 39, model F)
Patriot 2x1GB DDR2 800
XCLIO a380 case
eVGA 8800GTS 640MB

Using: CoreTemp, CPUZ, SpeedFan, RivaTuner for monitoring and tweaking, SuperPi and Prime95 for stabilty/torture tests, EQ2 (on Extreme settings) as my gaming benchmark.

I went with the 680i for three reasons: I want the SLI option for later this year when I get a second 8800GTS, I like eVGAs warranty and support, and it had all the features I wanted that some boards lacked. The E6600 was an ideal choice for price/performance, as well as overclocking potential.

I'm pleased so far, but as a gamer I find the Core 2 Duos somewhat limiting at stock speeds. 2.4GHz really does not cut it, EQ2 (my current game of choice and the most system-intensive one I own) in particular just bogs down there, and I saw a noticeable jump in performance when I overclocked up to 3.30GHz. So far, so good, and my temps are amazingly low with the stock HSF. I run about 34C idle, 46C load, on a 1.38 vcore (RAM timings 5-5-5-16, FSB 367 w/ 1.4v, DDR @ 733 w/ 2.0v). I think the airflow of the case has something to do with that. I can run Prime95 for a few hours, which is about all the time I've had to spare since I built it. I'll do some more rigorous stability tests this week.

The GPU is more than I could have hoped for, I have it clocked up to 633 core and 967 memory and it doesn't even hit 75C no matter what I do. I could push it further too, but I haven't played with it much.

I know I can get more out of my CPU and mobo, and that's where I need help. I'm looking into cooling options, thermal paste (Arctic Cooling MX-1 looks good) and a cooler for the CPU, as well as possibly a cooler for the northbridge (I'm using the stock fan) and an additional 120mm exhaust fan for the case; it has a pair of 250mm intakes, but no exhaust other than a vent. Weird.

So far the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7, the Scythe Infinity, and the Tunic Tower seem like good options for the CPU, I'm looking for decent cooling but want it as silent as I can, without going into water cooling. I could also use a new 250mm case fan for the side, the one it comes with rattles and doesn't move as much air as I'd like. It points directly at the CPU and Northbridge HSF, which makes it a prime spot for a fan that moves a lot of air.

I also need some tips on tweaking this motherboard, it's very picky. So far I'm absolutely unable to get the FSB higher than 367 no matter what vcore I use. I've had the best results with the FSB and DDR linked/synced, especially since my RAM is low-voltage low-latency DDR2 800. Overclocking memory isn't my primary concern, it's the FSB. I can get to 368 and 369FSB and they're SuperPi-stable, but Prime95 locks up after only a few minutes, sometimes even hard rebooting (ouch). 370 FSB will post, but Windows refuses to load. Higher voltages produce the same results.

I have a feeling that extra cooling will solve this, but look at my temps: 34/46 is not burning up, it's about what my old 2.8C Northwood did on a pretty serious overclock (3.4). Is 3.3GHz about as much as I can hope for on the stock HSF, or is cooling not my issue? I don't think I'm pushing the voltages on anything here. I also want to get the timings on my RAM down to 4-4-4-12, but pushing the voltage or timings at all on the memory just makes the CPU stop working at anything over 300FSB, so there's a stability problem I must be overlooking.

I'll get some pics of my BIOS if they'd help, but I think I've loaded this post with enough info. I'm a fairly inexperienced overclocker who only had to worry about keeping away from SNDS around the 1.75v mark on my old build, Conroes are a lot more forgiving and I hardly know which variables to tinker with. I want performance, not a high 3dMark score.

Advice, comments, suggestions and critiques are all welcome, with thanks in advance.

nice setup you got there...i can´t help you with your fsb problem because i am still having socket 478 but some advice to the cooler:
the Tunic Tower would be a nice choice i think
i have a TT Tower 112
link:http://www.ocia.net/reviews/tower112/tower112.shtml
pure copper....very nice but heavy
i also had to order it from austria...i don´t know if you can get it easily???
btw: some bios pics would be nice because there is so much tweaking that can be done in the bios
good luck

I suggest first to read up on the general overclocking stickies. There are quite a few guides specifically out there for the E6600 and the EVGA 680i combo if you look for them. It is quite hard to diagnose your problem, as there are so many BIOS settings that interact with diff hardware, but affects the OC as a whole.

The one thing I am curious about, is how much vCore have you actually tried to use? You say you ran 3.3GHz at 1.38vCore. I assume this is your BIOS setting. When you load up the processor, it is common for the voltage to drop a bit (known as vDroop). You also said your temps dont get very high using the stock cooler, which makes me believe you really havent pumped much voltage through the chip.

Assuming you have all of your timings / RAM / etc correctly set, you may want to give it more vCore. Certainly with a stock fan and hitting 3.3GHz, you should see some heat. If your vCore is too low, this will certainly explain your Prime95 failures.

Just for reference I am pushing 3.6GHz on my E6600 and EVGA 680i board, but I need to set 1.50vCore in BIOS to end up with 1.44vCore under load when Prime / Orthos testing.

I also play with EQ2 and know what you mean about gfx settings. I have said it time and time again, this is by far the most demanding gfx test I have seen for a PC. I have it on Extreme setting 1600x1200 2xAA and 16xAF and still cannot run with shadows without it turning into a slideshow. Perhaps when 8900GTXs hit the market, a pair of SLId ones can allow me to enable shadows finally.

Thanks for the responses. I'll post BIOS pics tonight when I have more time.

Surfrider77 said:

The one thing I am curious about, is how much vCore have you actually tried to use? You say you ran 3.3GHz at 1.38vCore. I assume this is your BIOS setting. When you load up the processor, it is common for the voltage to drop a bit (known as vDroop). You also said your temps dont get very high using the stock cooler, which makes me believe you really havent pumped much voltage through the chip.

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The 1.38vcore reading is what I get from SpeedFan and CPUZ, in the BIOS it's set to 1.425.

I made an error, the 34/46 readings were when I had it at 3.0, at 3.3 it's actually 37/51. My notes are a mess.

Also it failed to run Prime95 all night at 3.3, so I stepped down to 350FSB to see if that's stable at the same vcore. I want to find a good stability point before I get into >1.40v.

Assuming you have all of your timings / RAM / etc correctly set, you may want to give it more vCore. Certainly with a stock fan and hitting 3.3GHz, you should see some heat. If your vCore is too low, this will certainly explain your Prime95 failures.

Just for reference I am pushing 3.6GHz on my E6600 and EVGA 680i board, but I need to set 1.50vCore in BIOS to end up with 1.44vCore under load when Prime / Orthos testing.

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I'll try pushing it higher tonight after I run dual Prime95 all day while I'm at work. About how hot can the Conroes get, safe and stable? I've heard 55C, I've heard 65C, I can't seem to find a solid answer.

I also play with EQ2 and know what you mean about gfx settings. I have said it time and time again, this is by far the most demanding gfx test I have seen for a PC. I have it on Extreme setting 1600x1200 2xAA and 16xAF and still cannot run with shadows without it turning into a slideshow. Perhaps when 8900GTXs hit the market, a pair of SLId ones can allow me to enable shadows finally.

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My same rig gets consistently 30+ fps in games like FEAR or Oblivion, I have the same specs as an online friend who plays those at max AA, AF, in-game settings (some shadows turned down in Oblivion) and at 1600x1200. The 8800GTS is powerful enough for anything, the E6600 is more than fast enough. But EQ2 is just insane.

You're using RivaTuner or some other driver-related program to turn on AA and AF, right? There isn't a setting for it in-game, as far as I can tell. At 1280x1024, the highest resolution my LCD will support, it's marginally playable on Extreme except in a busy area, in which case it's just impossible. Very High is a good 25fps minimum most of the time.

aresprophet said:

... About how hot can the Conroes get, safe and stable? I've heard 55C, I've heard 65C, I can't seem to find a solid answer.

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Most would say to keep it under 60/65c. I personally have mine hovering right at 60c under Orthos load for hours. Thermal throttling starts at 85c.

aresprophet said:

You're using RivaTuner or some other driver-related program to turn on AA and AF, right? There isn't a setting for it in-game, as far as I can tell. At 1280x1024, the highest resolution my LCD will support, it's marginally playable on Extreme except in a busy area, in which case it's just impossible. Very High is a good 25fps minimum most of the time.

Click to expand...

The key here is shadows. You need to turn them all off, simple as that. They are a huge resource hog and it cuts my frames nearly in half. You should be able to max out textures, particles, lighting, etc without a glitch with an 8800GTS at your 1280x1024 resolution.

As for my AA and AF settings, I go into the SLI driver profile and manually set it under the EQ2 profile. 2xAA is enough to clear the jaggies, but any more than that is marginal for the loss in framerate.

The only time this gets a bit slow is during raids with 24 people blasting fancy particle effetcs / lighting all over the place.

So, here's some pics. Apparently the temps in my notes were before I started using dual Prime95s with affinity for each core, I only started doing that yesterday. Told you I was inexperienced.

Got home tonight, stopped my torture tests and ran SuperPi 1M. Pictures linked for margin rape, and the shots are blurry. My w600i is really touchy.

Stable after 8 hours, 3.15ghz
BIOS startup screen.
Advanced chipset features
FSB settings
CPU settings
Memory settings
Voltages

I've decided I need more cooling before I can risk a higher vcore, 57C under load is as high as I'm comfortable with right now. I'll weigh my options, the TT looks nice but holy cow is that thing huge. Space isn't an issue in my a380 but the weight scares me. I'm leaning toward the Freezer 7 at this point.

As for making a GPU driver profile for EQ2 (or any other game, for that matter) I'm still confused as to where you're doing this. nView? rivaTuner? I knew how to do it with my old ATI card but I can't seem to find the option with this one.

Honestly, I think all your settings look great in BIOS.

You definitely want to go with an aftermarket cooler before you push any further. Dont fret, I mean look at that overclock on a stock cooler! Great stuff.

You will see very signifigant drops in temps, especially if you go the Tuniq route. Dont worry about the weight... it is huge, but all that surface area is what dissipates the heat. It just depends where you want to go with the overclock. If you feel happy with the ballpark of 3.2-3.4GHz then you can go with other midrange coolers. If you are trying to get 3.4GHz+, those big coolers are your only option unless you go water cooling. Tuniq is the best air on the market and I wouldnt trade mine for anything. You can probably get away with a Thermaltake BigTyphoon 120, but the Thermaltake will most likely need a different fan than stock.

Do you happen to know if your motherboard is one of the newer revision boards? There is a new rev (late Jan) board that EVGA removed the raised capacitors off the back of the board. Some people were having mounting issues with aftermarket coolers that require mounting brackets (nearly all).

You can get away with the backplates even if you have an old version board (like me and others). See this thread for details: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=497463

Surfrider77 said:

Honestly, I think all your settings look great in BIOS.

You definitely want to go with an aftermarket cooler before you push any further. Dont fret, I mean look at that overclock on a stock cooler! Great stuff.

You will see very signifigant drops in temps, especially if you go the Tuniq route. Dont worry about the weight... it is huge, but all that surface area is what dissipates the heat. It just depends where you want to go with the overclock. If you feel happy with the ballpark of 3.2-3.4GHz then you can go with other midrange coolers. If you are trying to get 3.4GHz+, those big coolers are your only option unless you go water cooling. Tuniq is the best air on the market and I wouldnt trade mine for anything. You can probably get away with a Thermaltake BigTyphoon 120, but the Thermaltake will most likely need a different fan than stock.

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Yeah, I'm pretty impressed for stock. Could probably push it up to 3.2 at about 60C loaded, just for the heck of it, but 3.15 is close enough. I'll pick up a Tuniq then; is that MX-1 good thermal paste or is AS5 or Ceramique good enough? And is the stock Tuniq fan fairly quiet? I want a good balance of airflow and noise, I know a high-CFM fan won't be silent, but I don't want a jet engine either (despite the appearance of this case).

Do you happen to know if your motherboard is one of the newer revision boards? There is a new rev (late Jan) board that EVGA removed the raised capacitors off the back of the board. Some people were having mounting issues with aftermarket coolers that require mounting brackets (nearly all).

You can get away with the backplates even if you have an old version board (like me and others). See this thread for details: http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=497463

Click to expand...

Mine's a "TR" model but short of pulling the mobo (utter pain in the butt with this case, no tray!) is there a way to know which one I have? I thought I saw a date somewhere of 1/22/07 but I can't recall where I saw that, it's not on the box.

aresprophet said:

Yeah, I'm pretty impressed for stock. Could probably push it up to 3.2 at about 60C loaded, just for the heck of it, but 3.15 is close enough. I'll pick up a Tuniq then; is that MX-1 good thermal paste or is AS5 or Ceramique good enough? And is the stock Tuniq fan fairly quiet? I want a good balance of airflow and noise, I know a high-CFM fan won't be silent, but I don't want a jet engine either (despite the appearance of this case).

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Personally, I have never used anything other than AS5. Most on the forum would swear by it as well. Personal choice I suppose, but you can dig up comparison threads somewhere, I am sure. The Tuniq fan is relatively quiet. I have mine on full blast and I cant hear it over my PSU fan. The best thing is, its a large 120mm fan, so you dont get the vacuum cleaner sound fx from it. The last fan I had was a Zalman on my AMD processor and the Tuniq is quieter on full. Last thing, the Tuniq comes with a variable speed attachment, so you can manually set the thing to whatever you want.

aresprophet said:

Mine's a "TR" model but short of pulling the mobo (utter pain in the butt with this case, no tray!) is there a way to know which one I have? I thought I saw a date somewhere of 1/22/07 but I can't recall where I saw that, it's not on the box.

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You will have to pull it out to check. Here is an EVGA thread about difference between "AR" and "TR" boards. http://evga.com/community/messageboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=26830

Hmm interesting indeed. I'm considering making the leap over to C2D soon. I've got a deal in the works with a BFG 680i board which is the same exact board as the eVGA's. Not bothering with the 88OO series vc yet as my trusty 7800GTX handles all my games without any problems for now.

I'm also going H20 as i haven't used air cooling since the socket A days Reusing the current H20 in my sig, with the exception of the maze4, which will be replaced with the Swiftech MCW6002-P & the s775 mount

I'm going to be inspecting the back of the board to see if in fact there are those 2 smd's in the way. I might have to modify a backplate for the swifty wb's mount as i don't like using just the screws. I've seen( and had) boards bend to such an extent while tightening down the mounting that the board just crackles and snaps killing the board instantly. With the backplate it prevents that from happening.


Great thread here and thx for the info

Let us know how you get on Neb!

I just cant justify getting an entire watercooling setup from the ground up for an extra 100-200MHz. Makes sense if you have everything in-hand but the block though!

Good luck!

Joo bet Surfrider and thx!

You're right, getting an complete h20 setup from the ground up just for a few MHz more is not worth it IMHO. You can get the same speed increase just by swapping over to good aftermarket cpu cooler. My back-up rig is air cooled and i wanted the simplicity just b/c it's a back-up rig, nothing grand.

I'll still need to get a new chip and ram. Hoping the sale of my FX55, board and corsair ram might cover that I'll keep you updated.

aresprophet if i were you i would turn thermal control in bios back on.... set it to unlinked and change the ratio to 1:1